A friend came to me with an epoxy board that needed some repairs. I nor anyone who works for me has any experience with epoxy and told him so. My cousin helps me with ding repair and started in on the repair not knowing it was epoxy. He used polyester resin on it and it ate the foam. I have some ding all epoxy resin and gave him that to fix the problem and he filled all the holes with it and went to sand it and apparently it had not cured all the way and was left with a gooey mess on the bottom of the board. He tried to scrape it off and ripped up some of the cloth. So here is my questions. How do I get all the partial cured resin goo of the bottom of the board (will acetone work?)? I live in Maine and I’m having a hard time getting the epoxy to cure, is it the temperature? Does epoxy go bad after sitting around all winter? Do I use regular fiberglass cloth with the epoxy? Basically I need to strip off all of the old partially cured resin and start over form scratch but is it possible? I need a crash course in epoxy resins. Any information you can give me would be a great help!!!
Thanks!
SYN
First I’d give the epoxy a day or two in the house and see if it hardens up. If it doesn’t, you can use a hair dryer to soften the resin and you’ll be able to scrape it off easier. Epoxy doesn’t generally go bad. Your problem has to do with either the temperature of your shop or you didn’t mix it thouroughly enough or you got the mix ratio off.
Tips:
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Make sure when you mix a 2 to 1, that your fairly accurate.
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Make sure you thouroughly mix the resin and be sure to get all the way down into the corners of the bucket with your stir stick.
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Try to keep your work area above 50¼F
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Use GoJo or Fast orange or another like cleaner to clean skin. Use cheap brushes and throw them away after use.
Regular fiberglass is what most people use with epoxy.
Better luck with the next round.
Greg thank you for your quick response and I’ll try all of those suggestions. How long will epoxy normally take to cure? Should I leave it over night after each coat? Again thanks… I’ll let you know how it goes.
P.S. You made me one of the best boards I ever had back in the late eighties when you were shaping for ocean ave. I just wanted to tell you that and say thanks!!! It inspired me to start shaping.
SYN
Vinegar will remove wet epoxy like magic.
-tom
even if it is partially cured? I did put haardener in it it just didn’t cure fully.
Just wait it out. If it never cures, try the vinegar.